Busy Summer Bees!

Summers are always busy.  It’s the way life works, I guess.  All winter long you sit in the house, watching the falling snow (or lack thereof) in the freezing cold temperatures.  As soon as it warms up though, you are itching to get outside and go for walks and fix up your yard.  And then all the summer activities begin.

Last weekend was a busy one.  We started our Saturday waking up at 6:30 AM for a 5K at the Blair County/People’s Natural Gas Ballpark.  This was my wife’s third 5k, and my zeroth.  Seriously, my son and I just sat in the stands and watched.

Someday I will run one with her.  I really try not to make excuses for myself, and I was to the point last September where I could do a 5k on my own in under 40 minutes, but then I gained a little weight back over the winter and then sprained my ankle severely a couple of months ago by stepping in a hole in my back yard.  As you can tell from my last post though, I’m back to running again, so maybe by this September I’ll be fit and able to do one with her.  Hopefully!

Anyway, my wife and four-hundred plus others ran around the outfield of the ballpark, then took to the streets outside, did a few laps, and then ran back inside to finish.  She didn’t do as well as she would have liked, but it ended up being a quarter mile longer than the 3.11 miles.  I guess they really REALLY wanted the runners to have the opportunity to run laps inside the ballpark.  Anyway, it was a nice experience both as a spectator and as a runner, as my wife would attest.  She was one tired little lady afterwards, but Daddy and Adam were proud of her!

From there we went to the Blair County Arts Festival at Penn State Altoona, although by that time my son was ready for a nap and was rather grumpy.  We walked around, saw some ducklings at the pond, checked out the craft vendors, and ate some of the carnival-style food (hot dogs, gyros, fries, shaved ice).  We typically go every year, although when my son fell asleep with his head on my shoulder, our little excursion ended rather abruptly.  If you live close to the area and have never been there, I suggest you go next year.  They usually have it during the middle of May.

Later on that night we went to see the Avengers at the drive-in in Portage.  My son, who will be three in a couple of weeks, did fairly well for his first big-screen movie.  There were times when he preferred to inspect the parts of the car he’s never able to while strapped into his car seat, but for the most part he sat and watched the movie.  He loves the Marvel characters, and the scenes with Hulk especially caught his eye.

Drive-ins never quite amount to the same viewing experience as watching in a movie theater or in your own home, mostly because people never can seem to follow the headlight rules, and you inevitably have someone parked near you who is blabbering away about “Dina and Tina,” as was the case with us that night.  Still, we enjoyed the movie, are looking forward to seeing it on Blu-ray at home, and now we know that our son can possibly, hopefully, maybe sit through a movie in a real movie theater.  Fingers crossed!

Over the course of the next couple weeks we are visiting relatives in northern Pennsylvania, hoping to check out the Kinzua Bridge/Sky Walk while we are there.  If you don’t know anything about it, check it out:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinzua_Bridge.  It's a very interesting part of Pennsylvania history.  We also have an aunt’s wedding shower that my wife and mom are attending, my son’s birthday, and then in July we are heading to the beach for a week.  Fun times ahead for certain!

Of course, this doesn’t really leave me much time for writing and blogging, but that’s OK.  I realized after an afternoon spent on the golf course a few weeks ago that I actually do look better with a bit of a tan--not so sick and zombie/vampire-like.  I think I need to build a patio out behind my house so that I can sit out there on the weekends and evenings after work and write to my heart’s content on my tablet, rather than sitting inside at my desk.  Heck, maybe I just need to buck up and sit in the grass for the time being.  Anything is better than being inside on a pleasant summer day.

Even though I'm more of a fall/winter type of person, I'm really looking forward to this summer.  I’m not naturally fond of being too busy, but that’s because I sit on my butt watching TV too much.  Luckily the summer TV schedule has me feeling rather blasé (with the exception of Big Brother and True Blood), so hopefully we’ll get outside and enjoy life a little bit.  Maybe dust off and tune up the bikes, or perhaps make an impromptu weekend trip to Pittsburgh or NYC or Delaware.  Maybe we'll check out a zoo or roadside attraction as well.  Whatever it is that we end up doing, I’m looking forward to it!

So how about you?  What fun things have you planned this summer?  Any suggestions?

Running in the Rain

I remember being a young child and watching my dad work in the rain.  Whether it was cutting up firewood or building some addition onto his magnificent, Frankenstein-like house, the rain never seemed to stop him.  When he was finished, he’d come inside, shirt and hair soaked, acting as if the inclement weather hadn’t interfered with his plans one iota.  Now when I’m outside working on something or cleaning up my yard, I head inside as soon as the raindrops start falling, thinking my dad must have had quite a bit of determination to stay out there during a storm.

I think I understand why now.

Today I ran a little over two miles in the rain.  I wasn’t going to go, but I told myself that the rain was just an excuse, and so I pushed myself and went.  It started as a light mist, but by the time I had my first mile in, it was coming down pretty hard.  My shirt was already soaked, and I figured I might as well finish what I’d started.  My clothes would be just as wet after one mile as they would after two.

Running in the rain isn’t quite the same as riding a motorcycle in the rain.  I’ve done plenty of that in my life, where each drop feels like a slightly subdued bee sting.  It’s even worse when a storm sneaks up on you unexpectedly, especially when you are wearing just a t-shirt and darker-tinted sunglasses.  Not only do you have to deal with the piercing raindrops, but you have to clean your glasses, watch for huge puddles and pooling water, and hope your tires don’t lose traction.  Not fun.  Probably the only thing worse than riding in the rain is hitting a bird, which I had the misfortune of doing a few years back.  Luckily he hit my chest and not my face, and I was wearing my riding jacket and was only going about 30 mph.  I stopped rather quickly, turned in disbelief and watched the thing flop on the ground once or twice before it died.  I can't even recall hitting a bird in a car I was driving, yet somehow I managed to hit one while riding on my motorcycle.  Very strange encounter indeed, but I digress.

No, running in the rain is quite different.  It’s very empowering, knowing that you are out there, denying yourself excuses, pushing your body to its limits while water trickles down your nose and off of your earlobes.  You still have to watch your step, as the pavement can become slippery and you run the risk of taking a dive.  It’s an added challenge, too, trying to best your last time while enduring through the pounding raindrops.  I can’t say my two-mile time was any better today than it was on Friday, and my cool-down was abbreviated significantly.  My feet seemed to also hurt at the top just below my ankle, probably because I was inadvertently altering my stride to avoid falling.

But boy did it feel good.  Not to sound too much like Rob Lowe’s character, Chris Traeger, from Parks And Recreation, but if you ever need a quick pick-me-up moment in life, especially on a dreary, rainy day, put your running shoes on and go for a little jaunt.  I promise you it’s quite exhilarating, and you'll feel like a totally different person when you've finished, knowing that, yeah, you just did that!